Five Things You Didn't Know About Inflation -- and It's Heating Up

Higher inflation and continuing slow growth will tighten a vice on most Americans.

Many homeowners have only one source for high-speed Internet and cable TV, but the government does not regulate cable companies as it does electric utilities. Rates have risen rapidly in recent years.

Top private universities and a few elite public institutions have a lock on most good-paying jobs for graduates. Those schools have boosted tuition far more rapidly than even health care costs. That sets the pace for other schools, and federal policy is not to intervene in their monopoly pricing.

Harvard MBAs and Stanford engineers are doing great. But adults who lost good jobs in the recent recession remain stuck stocking shelves at local groceries or dependent on family and government benefits.

For most workers lucky enough to have full-time jobs, wages remain stagnant. Those wages purchase even less gas, food and other essentials with more inflation.

5. A Higher Minimum Wage Will Only Make Matters Worse

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the president's proposal to increase the minimum wage will destroy up to 1 million jobs.

Some restaurants and similar establishments will shutter, while others will rely more on machines similar to those used at some supermarket check outs.

Although those who hold minimum-wage jobs will earn more, all those extra unemployed workers will drive down the wages of workers earning near the minimum. Team leaders at McDonald's (MCD) will have fewer people to supervise and end up accepting only the minimum to work.